Designing with Feathers
by quicksilversquared
Summary: Most commissions coming to the Lady Luck Boutique aren't any problem. Some are a little weird, sure, but none could measure up to the feather-adorned outfits an up-and-coming band wanted. One feather-covered boutique, coming right up. How will Marinette survive?


Most of the time, the Lady Luck Boutique had very few problems with commissions. There were small disagreements about design elements, of course, and sometimes debates about how much things cost, but that was mostly it.

This was not one of those times.

" _Feathered_ stage outfits?" Marinette repeated incredulously, staring at the design plans her coworkers had spread out in front of her. Really, she was out sick for _one day_ and _this_ was that she came back to? "With _real_ feathers?"

"All humanely collected, they told us," Lynsey reported hurriedly, as if _that_ was was what Marinette was worried about. "And we double-checked the suppliers, and they're all feathers that were molted or collected from birds that died naturally."

"Haven't you worked with real feathers before?" Isabelle asked. "I know you did with that bowler hat competition."

" _Real_ feathers," Marinette repeated, ignoring Isabelle's comment. The bowler hat _hardly_ counted. She had made that _ages_ ago and it had had all of three feathers. That hardly counted as _working with feathers_. "If there something wrong with using fake feathers? They would be easier."

Isabelle shrugged. "They told us to use the real feathers. The band is a really eccentric bunch, you should have met them. They said that they were 'reincarnated from birds' and that the real feathers would 'connect them to their roots.'" She rolled her eyes. "I don't understand it either, but we're having a slow month and we need to pay rent, so I didn't want to ask and risk scaring them away."

Marinette huffed out a long sigh, staring blankly at the designs on the desk. More than a couple were heavily feathered, which would take _hours_ , but it was hardly the time that Marinette was worried about. After all, pieces that took more time to make would fetch a higher price.

No, she was worried about the feathers themselves.

Marinette had worked with feathers as accent pieces before, both with the bowler hat and in various projects in design school, but the ones at the school were artificial, so that her boyfriend wouldn't react to them. With real feathers, the fluff would get _everywhere_ and Adrien would probably start sneezing the moment she got home. He would be miserable, she would be miserable since she would have to sleep on the couch and not their bed, and the whole month would just drag on forever.

"Is there a problem?" Isabelle asked in confusion. "I didn't think the designs were really that bad at all, considering that they're for performers."

Marinette hadn't even seen most of the designs yet. That was a whole other can of worms. "I- no, there's not a problem with the designs-" she trusted her coworkers' fashion sense, after all- "but my boyfriend is _really_ allergic to feathers, and since we share a flat..."

Both Isabelle and Lynsey winced.

"We'll figure something out," Lynsey said a moment later. "I mean, all of these need a cloth base before we can embellish with the feathers. Once we get things started, you could probably work on that part while Belle and I do the feathers. Minimize the contact, you know."

Marinette bit her lip. "That...could work."

"We could move one sewing machine into the main workroom so that you don't have to be in the same room as the feathers," Isabelle added. "And we still have the commission for Madam Knave to finish up, so you could do that, too."

"Yeah," Lynsey agreed, nodding her head. "I'm sure it won't be as big of a problem as you think."

-0-0-0-

Marinette was able to stay away from the feathers for all of a week before their carefully constructed plan came crashing down.

"Three _more_ pieces?" Marinette gasped when she heard the news. "And all of them have feathers as well?"

Isabelle nodded grimly. "And they didn't want to move back the deadline at all. At least they like what we've done so far?" she offered a bit weakly. "But there's no way we can make it with only two of us working on the feathers, Marinette. We already would have been cutting it close."

Marinette's heart dropped. _Seriously?_ The band refused to push back the deadline?

That was _infuriating_. Clients could sometimes be unreasonable, but they almost _always_ acknowledged that things took time to do well and that extra work meant extra time. People understood, because they were humans and not machines. But apparently not the Feathered Nightmares.

 _Ugh_.

"You can't just refuse?" Adrien asked that night as they sat on their couch. Marinette had gotten a change of clothes from home before even so much as _touching_ any of the feathers and had stored it in an airtight plastic baggie. Before heading back to the flat she shared with Adrien, she had had to go home with Isabelle and change into her feather-free clothes there.

(Feathers, Marinette had learned very quickly, were a _pain,_ especially when they were breast feathers instead of the sleeker wing feathers. Little fluffy bits broke off and ended up in her hair, and under her clothes, and in her _shoes..._ )

"We need the business," Marinette sighed, making a face. She really, _really_ wished that they were doing well enough just based on their own designs, but they weren't _quite_ there yet. "And they were acting so _flighty_ during the meeting that Isabelle and Lynsey didn't want to argue too much and make them take off." She groaned when she realized what she had said. "I'm spending too much time with you. I'm starting to pun without realizing it."

Adrien could only snicker.

"It's actually very pretty, what they're doing with the feathers," Tikki piped up from her spot on a cushion on top of the back of the couch. "And they can mold the feathers, did you know? They put it under a hot wet cloth for a bit, and then they can bend it into shape and let it dry!" Tikki had quite liked watching that part of the process. How Lynsey had discovered that trick was a mystery, but it had certainly made the clothes look a _lot_ better.

"You'll have to take pictures," Adrien said, pulling Marinette up against his side and starting to massage her shoulders. She relaxed into his hands, letting him rub away her soreness. "I want to see, but if the three feathers on the bowler hat made me sneeze..."

"Yeah, you won't want to be anywhere near the shop for a while." Marinette covered her face with her hands and groaned. "We were going to _try_ to be neat with the feathers so that they wouldn't get all over the place, but no such luck. They've gotten _everywhere_ , so we'll probably just have to sell the place and move when this is all over."

Adrien snorted.

"I'm serious! We're doing all of the featherwork in the room where all of our sewing machines are, but they get absolutely _everywhere._ They stick to our shoes, our clothes, our _hair..._ "

"Are you _certain_ you don't just want to refer these people to another boutique? It sounds like they're more trouble than they're worth."

Marinette made a face. "I wish, but we need to keep the shop running somehow and this order will keep us going for another few months." It was the one bright spot at the end of the tunnel; not having to worry about eking by month after month would be a blessing and would allow them to work more on their own designs instead of having to rely on commissions to get by. "That much applique on that many outfits will cost a lot."

"That's good, at least." Adrien's hands paused in their kneading. "Wait, how much is _a lot_?"

Marinette let herself grin. "Their cheapest piece is a feathered bra with an owl's face between the two cups. It's ninety-seven euros."

Adrien let out a low whistle. While he was definitely no stranger to the prices that came with couture looks, that kind of price for a bra was _insane._ "That's the _lowest?_ "

"Mmm." Marinette pushed her shoulders back into Adrien's hands, hoping he would start up his kneading again. "Most are two to three hundred. They would've been even higher if we had had to buy all of the feathers ourselves."

"And the band knows that they're paying that much?" Adrien was frowning. "Mari, if they back out on you..."

That had been a worry of Marinette's at first as well. If the band backed out once they completed the order, they would have to try to sell the custom pieces or they would end up losing all the time and money that they had put in. The Lady Luck Boutique would go under for sure. But Lynsey and Isabelle had already managed to evade that problem.

"The band paid half upfront and have been paying the rest as we go," Marinette assured Adrien, grinning. "And they paid for the extra pieces upfront. From what I've heard, one of the band members was born into quite a bit of money and it's his inheritance they're using to buy the outfits."

Adrien barked out a laugh, startling both kwami as they napped. Plagg let out a quiet hiss at the disturbance. "That's quite a way to blow an inheritance."

"Yeah, I'm sure he'll regret it if they don't make it big." Still, the man hadn't looked at all concerned the last time he came into the store with another check. They had been depositing the checks within a day of receiving them, just to make sure nothing bounced. So far, so good.

Adrien went back to massaging Marinette's shoulders as they relaxed together, watching the news on the muted TV. He leaned forward to press a kiss to the crown of her head and immediately sneezed.

"Sorry!" Adrien managed as he leaned back, wiping his nose. "I don't know what happened- a-a-a _CHOO_!"

"I might have feathers on me still somewhere," Marinette groaned, peeling herself away from Adrien. " _Great._ "

"Hold still!" Adrien said suddenly as Marinette made to get up. He reached out and plucked a small brown feather from Marinette's hair. Adrien waved the feather at Marinette and grinned. "Maybe you should wear a hairnet like your father does!"

Marinette snatched the feather from Adrien before he could sneeze again. "That's...actually a really good idea. I'll swing by the bakery and snitch a couple before I go into work."

"Do you want a hazmat suit to go with that?"

Marinette swatted at Adrien as she got up to throw the feather away. " _That_ would be going overboard, kitty."

"Oh, but then I could see you at lunchtime again."

"It wouldn't be fashion-forward at all." Marinette returned to the couch and plopped down in Adrien's lap. "I'd look ridiculous, and I don't know where to find one anyway. And don't you _dare_ ," Marinette added with one look at Adrien's face. "I wouldn't wear it. I would feel ridiculous."

"I'll behave," Adrien claimed.

The twinkle in his eyes promised otherwise.

* * *

With the addition of the hair net and daily post-work showers at Isabelle's place, no more feathers made their way back to Adrien and Marinette's apartment. The entire process, especially the shower and changing clothes, was both exhausting and exasperating, especially since Marinette and her coworkers were already working long days to get the order done in time and all Marinette wanted to do when they closed for the day was to go home and crash. Instead, she had to make the trek over to Isabelle's apartment to shower before changing, adding another nearly forty-five minutes to her day.

Marinette _could. not. wait._ for this project to be done. She needed to spend some quality time with her boyfriend, darn it.

One week before the deadline, the band visited again. They cooed over the finished pieces, nodded at the ones still in progress, and handed over another chunk of the payment.

And then they opened their mouths again.

"I don't want to look the same for every performance," their singer- Amanda, Marinette was sure she was called- said. "Maybe a few more shirts so I can mix and match? I don't have any particular designs in mind, though..."

The three designers exchanged alarmed looks.

"Perhaps you could pair feathered items with non-feathered looks," Isabelle suggested quickly, stepping forward and taking charge of the conversation before Marinette could do anything stupid, like letting out a frustrated groan or outright refusing to do it. "You could have screen-printed tanks, maybe- they would be easier to wear than the feathered things in hot venues." When the band members looked unconvinced, Isabelle simply smiled. "Why don't I sketch out a few examples so you can get a better idea? In the meantime, my associates can get back to working on your pieces. We should be done by the deadline at this rate."

Lynsey and Marinette saw their opening, made their excuses, and bowed out.

"Oh, _please_ let them go for that," Lynsey sighed as she and Marinette went back to tacking feathers into place. "Isabelle could come up with some _fantastic_ designs for screenprinting, and it wouldn't take that much time for each."

"And no _feathers_ ," Marinette sighed, reaching for another handful of light brown feathers from the bag. "I can't _wait_."

She couldn't wait to go back to working with draping satin and structuring cotton weaves and finishing the velvet dress she had been halfway through sewing.

"But even if Isabelle persuades them to go with the screenprinting now, they're probably going to come back and ask us to do more pieces further down the road," Lynsey pointed out. She knotted off a thread and snipped it. "Feathers don't last forever, especially if someone's rocking out in them. The sweat and the heat does a number on them."

Marinette groaned.

* * *

As it turned out, Isabelle had come up with cool enough designs that the band members just _had_ to order some screenprinted shirts. Marinette let out a cheer of relief.

"They said they won't order any more feathered things for at least six months, probably," Isabelle reported. "But that they would be coming back in the future."

Marinette promptly deflated.

"God, is it a bad thing to hope that they flop?" Lynsey muttered, pressing her face into her hands. "No more feathers, I can't take it."

Isabelle gave her a _look_. "Their order pays our rent for a good three or four months. The feathers aren't _that_ bad."

"I'm taking a mental health day after this is all over," Marinette announced as she came to the end of a thread and knotted it off. "I need cuddle time with my boyfriend."

"You also need to come claim all of your clothes from my house," Isabelle reminded her. "The ones that you kept claiming were contaminated. I don't know how you have anything left in your closet at this point."

Marinette groaned again.

"You need something to wear over your clothes so that they don't get feather bits on them," Lynsey said. She set the crop top down for a moment to stretch. "Then you could just leave that here and be able to go home to your boyfriend without too much fuss."

"Adrien suggested a hazmat suit," Marinette admitted grudgingly. She had to admit, the suggestion was becoming more and more tempting as the month dragged on and she had to extend her already-long day just to clean herself up. The fact that the suits looked _ridiculous_ and the fact that she still had to occasionally meet with other (normal) clients were the only things holding her back. "I think he's getting as tired as I am about how late I've been coming home because I have to shower first. But that would just look stupid."

* * *

Once the final feather was sewn down into place, it was time for clean-up. Isabelle and Lynsey both brought in vacuums from their apartments to help with the process, since the vacuum they kept in the shop was a bit old and didn't exactly do the best job of cleaning. Marinette sealed the bags of leftover feathers tightly and tucked them away in an empty cabinet drawer before starting the first sweep with the ancient vacuum cleaner. It didn't do a great job of picking up the small bits of feather off of the floors, but at least their shop didn't have any carpet.

If they had, the vacuum probably wouldn't have done anything at all.

Isabelle followed Marinette with her vacuum, sucking up the smaller feather pieces. Lindsey got the corners and baseboard with the narrow extension on her vacuum. They went over the entire place twice, and then they mopped the floors. They picked through all of their supplies, plucking feathers out of strange places- notebooks, bins of thread, windowsills, the _bathroom_. By the time the place was declared feather-free, it was evening and no normal work had been done.

"It was actually nice to have a day off from sewing," Marinette commented as they locked up. "We've been hunched over those pieces for so long, it's nice to actually be standing up and moving around."

Lindsey snorted. "Speak for yourself. I was hunched over with my vacuum half the day, trying to clean under the shelves and everything."

"The shop definitely needed the cleaning," Isabelle added as they reached her car. She unlocked it and opened the trunk to dig out the large bag of Marinette's laundry. "I don't know when the last time was that we did a deep cleaning, but it was too long ago."

"We were a little busy trying to keep the shop afloat," Marinette said, accepting the large bag from her friend. "All of our time was spent sewing. But hopefully we shouldn't have to rush so much for a couple months."

"Except we have a number of commissions to catch up on," Lynsey reminded them. "So we _do_ have to pull some long days to catch up on those... and then if we want to have any original pieces out, then we need to get to work on those sooner rather than later."

"You always have to bring us back down to earth, don't you," Isabelle sighed, but there was no real bite to it. "Okay, okay. I actually have some sketches ready for discussion, and I think Marinette does, too, right? We can do that tomorrow before starting on commissions so we can do supply orders."

"Sounds like a plan," Lynsey said cheerfully. "And with any luck, we'll get right back to normal business in no time."

* * *

Much to the combined surprise and horror of the employees of the Lady Luck Boutique, the feather-adorned band not only survived their first six months as a band, they _thrived_. They became strangely popular on the folk rock scene and even managed to get a couple of their songs playing on the radio. Their feathered-covered outfits apparently had some strange appeal to them, because the critics absolutely _loved_ them. It added "character", they said, and it was a unique element that made the band stand out. The band's outfits were featured in more than a few magazines. Most of those magazines mentioned that the Lady Luck Boutique had made the pieces.

On one hand, the free advertising was... nice. They were fast becoming known as the boutique that dressed famous musicians. It was exposure that was impossible to buy.

...but it also meant that they were famous for working with _feathers,_ which was the exact opposite of what they had wanted to happen.

Thankfully the price of the feathered pieces put them firmly out of the price range of most of the band's fans. They got quite a few inquiries, so many that they finally ended up making a chart of the most commonly asked about pieces and the prices. It meant that they wouldn't have to go through the whole process of sketching out a piece based on individual requests, only for the would-be customer to back out as soon as they learned the price. It was a frustrating waste of time, especially when they had commissions that they were actually _excited_ about to complete.

The screen-printed shirts, though, were _much_ more in the general public's price range. Isabelle negotiated with the band so that the group could hire a manufacture to mass-produce the shirts with the boutique's custom designs on them. Lady Luck Boutique would get a cut from each shirt sold, which... well, that was _fantastic_ news. It would help them keep going without too much of a problem for months.

What was less fantastic was when the feather band's lead singer showed up on their step again, clutching a handful of designs in her fist and beaming at them.

* * *

"We're going to be working with _feathers_ again," Marinette groaned as soon as she got home. Adrien glanced up from the couch as she kicked off her shoes at the door. " _Feathers_. Ugh."

Much to her surprise, Adrien only smiled as he got up. "Actually, I bought you something to help with that. Give me a second and I'll go grab it."

"It better not be a hazmat suit," Marinette called after him, suddenly worried. His smile had taken a turn towards Chat Noir's signature smirk as he passed her and went into the hallway. She leaned forward, craning to see what Adrien was pulling out of a box in the closet. It was dark, probably black, and looked like it was a one-piece. As he shook it out and held it out, Marinette's jaw dropped.

 _Nuh-uh. Nope. No way._

As Marinette's mouth hung open, Adrien only grinned. "It's not a hazmat suit, technically," he said, smirking widely as he held up the black outfit. "But it'll cover your clothes so that I you don't have to leave all of your nice things at work, and really, you can't deny that it's cute-"

"I AM _NOT_ WEARING CHAT NOIR FOOTIE PAJAMAS TO WORK!"

* * *

 _A/N: As with most of the things I write, this is a one-shot and therefore complete.  
_

 _Please leave reviews, they really make my day!_


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